One man engine drop today
 

I'm new to this forum but I wanted to post that as a start to much procrastinated maintenance I dropped the engine and trans today. It was a one man operation, me, with some 'help' from my son Brendan. :D It took about 4 1/2 hours total with about half of that time spent on head scratching and rereading the list of stuff to disconnect. Only had one fuel line fitting which refused to seperate causing me to remove several of the lines downstream from the fitting instead.

I did enlist some help from a couple of friends (I'm the one in the middle) during the actual drop so it didn't fall off the jack. But it was no problem at all (I got lucky on the balance point). It's been a while since I last dropped the engine (1989) when I did a clutch job when the rubber donut blew.

Now I get to separate the trans and clean it real good so Marc can do a trans rebuild. :D

I'll be asking all sorts of questions as I tackle some of the niggling maintenance that I've been putting off for several years. This is a great forum for the DIY. I am glad I found it.

Congrats on the drop. You should have posted something... we could have come over and drank your berr... err.. I mean.... helped. Glad to have another member from the PRMD, especially one with soon-to-begained 915 rebuilding knowledge. This is next winter's project for me.

Ballsy work on the one man drop. Save the second pic - it s a classic that you will want to recall when he is 14 and you are witless.

Welcome to the Dorki Drop brotherhood.

Congrats on the drop and welcome to the board.

That second picture is a classic ... I have similar pics saved from my drop last year when my oldest son (4 yrs at the time) spent many many hours in the garage with me during my drop & rebuild.

Good luck with all the work and your tranny will be in great hands with Marc.

BTW, good choice on the color of your car as it looks similar to mine :)

I would have loved to have you all over to share a beer while I cracked my knuckles but since I don't really know anyone yet I was too shy to ask. :oops:

OK, I'll bite... what is a PRMD?

And it wasn't toooo ballsy to do the drop by myself. I've been doing the majority of my own wrench turning for about 25 years now. I cut my teeth (and many other things) on a '71 VW Bus. I had it down so good that I could drop that engine in 1/2 hour easy. (Did a valve lap job on my friends '70 in a townhouse parking lot in 4 hours.) Finally had to give up the '71 after 305,00 miles (and on it's fourth engine). :)

I've had the '77 Carrera 3.0 since 1985 and was active in PCA Potomac back in the late 80's. I haven't been to a DE for about 12 years or so. Maybe there will be one in the future (at the moment my attention is on my son and wife and hang gliding).

The color is Minerva Blue. Not sure how long they offered it or if it was a Euro color only. The car was grey-market imported in '85.

Ever seen a grown men cry....this is music to our ears :wink:

Congrats on the drop and welcome to the board!

Great way to make an introduction Dave :D ! Ditto what Doug said, I love the Minerva Blue. Welcome to the board.

Re: One man engine drop today
 

Dave,

With Brendan's experience can I borrow him to help reinstall my engine? I don't want any of these other guys critiquing my work! :lol:

Welcome to the board.
Steve

Brendan is definitely available to help with the reinstall. If it is after March then he may have additional experience with mine as well. Of course he does critique things. Mostly by saying 'Me...me' since he wants to do it himself. He is also very good with a socket wrench and knows his way around a pair of channel locks. :lol:

And I agree on the Minerva Blue. I was so happy that this car had that color since I had no choice by buying used, and I really loved the Carrera 3.0. Sometimes you get lucky.

It was good to meet you and your son today. I forgot answer your question Komrade. It stands for Peoples Republic of Maryland and is right next to the mother country, PRDC.